Help / Advice with regards to pot size

Hi, i’ve got some fruit trees i bought from a nursery and i plan on growing them in pots. All the trees are currently in 7-10 liter pots (2-3 gallons) and are around 1.2m in height roughly

Should i move to 20 liter pots (5 gallon) first and then to 40 liter (10 gallon) and so on, until i finally reach the final size size i want or can i plant in the final pot size from now?

Below are the final pot sizes im considering

1 x Pinkerton Avocado (100 liter - 26 gallon)
1 x Australian Tea Tree (100 liter - 26 gallon)
1 x Papershell almond (100 liter - 26 gallon)
1 x Moringa (100 liter - 26 gallon)
1 x Pomegranate - (70 liter - 18 gallon)
1 x Fig (70 liter - 18 gallon)
1 x Ginger (30 liter - 8 gallon)

Would it be too much of a jump to be planting these trees in 70-100l containers (18-26 gallon)? Would i run the risk of root rot etc because the pot is too large? All my pots are fabric pots.

I never go in stages if i can help it. If it were me, id put them into the full sized ones now. That being said, ive never grown anything on your list except a fig.

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Maybe, it depends on how fast the potting mix drains. If it drains fast, root rot is unlikely, but frequent watering is the price you will pay.

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Thanks, i’m thinking ill put in the full size as well. Aiming for a soil mix that will drain well, so hopefully less chance of root rot etc.

Heres roughly what im planning for my potting mix:

100 l vermiculite
100 l worm castings
125 l perlite
100 l coco peat buffered
100 l compost from my garden
100 l topsoil from garden

So, it should drain well im thinking…

Maybe i even use just 50l topsoil and then add 50-60 l of a ready-made potting mix in…

If frequent watering is the price to pay, i can live with that i guess :slight_smile:

Before deciding on a single mix for such a diverse assortment of plants, I would spend some time researching each plant and it’s needs. They may not all do well in the same mix.

I’d start with smaller pots and work your way up, adjusting with experience. You may find that what you think will be the perfect mix might not work out well and it will be a lot of work re-potting those large/heavy pots.

Of the plants on your list I only have experience with figs and have had success with standard potting mixes with the addition of pine bark fines and/or perlite to loosen it up.

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Tailor your mix to your area. For my permanently potted plants, I make sure to mix in a good amount of vermiculite to hold more moisture. It gets hot here in Texas during the summer and watering the pots each day is just not something I want to do.

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Cool, yea i guess youre right. Maybe instead of just mixing the whole batch ill do specific species research and mix accordingly. I also have the following organic additives to amend the soil as needed per plant type:

Rock Dust
Calcitic Lime
Powdered and liquid kelp
Bone Meal

Planning on mixing 1/6 vermiculite as well as 1/6 parts of perlite.
Apparently my area is classified as 10a, we don’t have the coldest winter, nor the hottest summers. (Gauteng, South Africa)

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I do a lot of things in pots. Typically use the smallest pot that gets the job done. Up-sizing to a bigger container in a year for trees, and in a few weeks for tomatoes or something, is not any more trouble than dealing with tons of soil and tiny plants in large pots at late winter planting time.
Also, much less root girdling if sizes of pots are changed as the plant grows.

But, not everyone likes to garden…so doing once and forgetting it may work best for those folks.